


To Be Made Real Again

by VirginiasWolf



Category: Death in Paradise
Genre: Alternate Universe - Richard Poole Lives, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-20
Updated: 2019-06-20
Packaged: 2020-05-15 15:03:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 786
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19298152
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/VirginiasWolf/pseuds/VirginiasWolf
Summary: The news Camille has for her mother is probably best being delivered in person. However, it isn't yet time to return Saint Marie yet.





	To Be Made Real Again

**Author's Note:**

> I don't know if I should apologize for the rate I'm churning these out, but a muse wants what a muse wants and right now all my muse wants is Richard Poole alive and happy with Camille Bordey. Unfortunately, my schedule NEEDS me to churn out a good portion of an original novel that is not related to islands or paradise or British people (although I have managed to accept that one of the characters in said novel probably could be face-claimed by Sara Martins) so muse and schedule will have to have a stern talk with each other and get on the same page. Until then, enjoy.

This isn't the kind of bombshell she should be dropping on Catherine from halfway around the world. Her mother can probably handle the fact that she's done with her undercover work now, and maybe even the fact that she decided to marry a nice man whom she "met" during her undercover work and she's promised him they'll stay in London for a few years. However, there's one more thing that will likely come as thoroughly shocking to her mother.

Camille is in the bedroom of her London flat, dressed in light pajamas and leaning affectionately against her new husband who is warm and happy and most importantly, alive.

His hand reaches under her shirt to stroke her spine and she can't help but giggle before leaning in to kiss him. "You're going to ruin my phone call with Maman."

The hand withdraws, and he instead opts for wrapping it around her waist and pulling her closer.

The phone rings several times before Catherine picks up. 

All Camille can say at the sound of her mother's voice is "Maman." 

There is catching up to do, so much of it that Camille almost forgets to even mention that she has a husband now until said husband grumbles impatiently. He's been told not to speak until he is mentioned, lest the sound of his voice startles Catherine, but he, of course, has his own questions about the island, and he does still have a tendency to be a bit pedantic.

"Maman, I'm married now," Camille finally says, looking down at the hand resting over hers, admiring the way the pale of his skin looks with the brown of hers.

"Well, what is my son-in-law like?" Catherine asks immediately.

Camille assumes her mother is asking about things like how well she's treated, but she chooses to respond a different way. "He's very British."

She can tell Richard is sulking now by the way his hold on her has changed, but her comment should teach him not to grumble and try to rush her.

The comment seems to evoke a different reaction from Catherine though, and Camille suddenly remembers that her mother doesn't know the truth yet. "I remember another man you described as very British. You were in love with him too."

Camille doesn't intend to start crying. There's no reason to. After all, Richard Poole is alive and will never again trick her into thinking he is not, but her mind flashes back to the time she spent not knowing. How she'd tried to convince herself that she could fall in love with Humphrey as a replacement before deciding that the only thing she could do was leave behind all the places she'd been happy with Richard. 

The tears begin to fall hot and wet on her cheeks until Richard reaches around her to grab a tissue out of the box on the bedside table and begins to dab at them so gently that she is instantly calm enough to speak again, even as she hears her mother attempting to apologize for upsetting her.

"Actually, I'm still in love with Richard. He isn't dead Maman. We worked together undercover and we decided that we wanted to stay together and..." Camille trails off suddenly realizing that in a matter of minutes she's gone from crying to blushing. She realizes that from the moment she'd discovered that Richard was wonderfully alive and as much in love with her as she was with him, she'd wanted to immediately call up Catherine and proclaim the news while squealing like a school girl with her first crush. 

Of course, being undercover had meant she couldn't and maybe to some extent that had made it all not seem real. All those nights, even as she laid in bed just watching Richard's sleeping face, she'd half expected to wake up and find herself back on the island with the knowledge that he was still dead and she'd only dreamed up elaborate fantasies of what could never be. After all, if it was real, if Richard was still real, wouldn't her mother and Dwayne and Fidel and everyone else know this too? Now that she's finally gotten a chance to proclaim to her mother that he is alive and her husband, the doubt suddenly disappears fully from her mind. Richard is real and he's holding her so tenderly in his arms, and she can smell his aftershave and feel the thick pajamas he always wears and just hear the sound of his breathing and she suddenly knows this won't change. Not here. Not if they decide to return to Saint Marie. Not in any of the other places they may travel, as long as they remain together.


End file.
